Wednesday

October 8

OUTWARD pomp and appearance, is a great juggler; and then especially art thou most in danger to be beguiled by it, when (to a man's thinking) thou most seemest to be employed about matters of moment.

MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book vi. 4.

PUBLIC shows and solemnities with much pomp and vanity, stage plays, flocks and herds; conflicts and contentions: a bone thrown to a company of hungry curs; a bait for greedy fishes; the painfulness, and continual burden-bearing of wretched ants, the running to and fro of terrified mice: little puppets drawn up and down with wires and nerves: these be the objects of the World.

2 comments:

Public shows, scandals, outward fashion and appearance, these are the great distractors; and we are most in danger of being beguiled by them when they seem to be matters of great importance. Life is squandered in luxury and carelessness when it is devoted to no good end, and when faced with death we see that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. - Lessons from Marcus Aurelius and Seneca

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I found Words of the Ancient Wise in late 2008, and my wife and I had been reading the passages fairly consistently since. 2017 is the ninth year of our run through these texts. Re-reading the old comment reveals some interesting truths about our lives.

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Note

This book was compiled by W. H. D. House (M.A. Litt. D) and originally published in 1906. The frontispiece holds the following:

These extracts are taken from the translations of Marcus Aurelius by Meric Casaubon (1634 and 1635), and of Epictetus by Elizabeth Carter (1758). A few corrections, alterations, and omissions have been made.